Closing out the catechesis I started last week as promised, more excerpts from The Catechism Explained by Spirago-Clarke:

God rewards with temporal blessings those who keep holy His day.

Consider the loving kindness of God; it is no toilsome service He requires of you, but that you should rest. There are one hundred and sixty eight hours in a week. God only demands one day (twenty four hours) for Himself; must you use this for your worldly affairs? Those who would prosper in their business must consecrate Sunday to the service of God. Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America, when on his voyage always kept his vessels stationary on Sunday. God often protects in a special manner those who keep holy His day………God often increases the gains of those who abstain from the pursuit of their calling on Sundays……..

The profanation of the Sabbath is frequently punished with temporal evils, sickness, and poverty.

Because the Jews habitually violated the sanctity of the Sabbath God permitted Nebuchodonosor to destroy Jerusalem and take the people into captivity (II Esd xiii:18). The usual punishment for profaning Sunday and not hearing Mass is to become the captive of vice. Those who work continuously ruin their health; man can no more live without taking repose than without eating. Thus, the day of rest is not only a religious duty, but a natural necessity. To those who work on Sundays God says as to the Jews of yore: “I will quickly visit you with poverty” (Lev xxvi:16). Those who through greed of gain desecrate Sunday, obtain the very opposite of their aim………

The non-observance of Sunday undermines family life and social relations

This sin causes the disintegration of the family. If the members of a family neglect public worship, they lose all sense of their duties and fall into evil ways. The father becomes dissolute, the mother indifferent, the children insubordinate. The father does not fulfill his duty to his children; occupied all the week he sees but little of them; on Sunday he has leisure to observe their individual characters, and give them useful instruction. The disintegration of society follows that of the family; the profanation of Sunday is an open violation of God’s Law………Catholics who are careless in regard to the holy days of obligation, gradually lose all sense of their religious duties; they forget God, their final end, and become like heathen. Those who are not found on Sunday morning among the children of God on earth, will be excluded from His presence for all eternity. By sanctifying Sunday, we lay up for ourselves treasures which will last forever.

——–End Quote——–

How much have we seen the last borne out among Catholics in these past several decades?!? Catholics skip Mass, embrace contraception, divorce, and fornication, and have become indistinguishable from the heathen! Neglecting the Sunday obligation has been a substantial factor in the collapse of the Faith in so many countries. This has proven as ruinous for society as it has for individual souls. Formerly Christian countries are now more heathen than many of the lands more recently evangelized. America is increasingly becoming another of these formerly Christian countries. I personally believe that process accelerated once laws against unnecessary business and shopping on Sunday were lifted in many regions 30-40 years ago. That was a most significant, and damaging, step in the de-Christianization of the United States. Like many previous steps, it was not innocently contrived nor completely accidental. It is part of a general effort towards driving the Christian religion into the catacombs, if not out of existence entirely.

I know some folks have problems with TFP (I’ve personally never experienced any, they seem to be doing a great deal of good work), but I have to say, more like this:

Ahead of the upcoming Synod on the Family in Rome, dozens of organizations are collecting petitions to Pope Francis, asking him to reinforce Church teaching on marriage and family. Today, the worldwide petition surpassed 500,000 signatures, including those of 5 cardinals, 117 bishops and hundreds of prominent civil leaders.

“College students from coast to coast are asking Pope Francis to reaffirm Church teaching at the Synod,” said John Ritchie, director of Tradition Family Property Student Action, one of the pro-family groups gathering petitions.

“After Ireland and the U.S. Supreme Court both approved same-sex ‘marriage,’ a strong reaffirmation of Church teaching could save the sacred institution of marriage, strengthen the family and dispel the lies of the homosexual revolution,” Ritchie stated. “Young Catholics — even non-Catholics — look to the Church as a beacon of morality and stability in our Godless culture, but some of our shepherds have issued confusing statements.”…….

……..”This prayerful petition asks Pope Francis to clear up the moral confusion that’s been spreading against Natural and Divine Law,” continued Ritchie. “If the enemies of the family continue to chip away at holy matrimony, the future of the family and civilization itself will be in even more serious peril.”

The pro-family petition, Filial Appeal to His Holiness Pope Francis on the Future of the Family, will be hand delivered in Rome on September 29, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel.

So there’s over a month left! It would be wonderful to me to see the number of signatures double in the five weeks remaining. But I fear virtually any number of signatures will still be ignored by those who are bent on pursuing ideological agendas and not necessarily doing what is best for souls or the Church at large. It’s like that scene in For Greater Glory when the faithful Catholics are gathering millions of signatures to protest the Calles’ government persecution of the Church, and an older man rightly prognosticates that they would indeed ignore even millions of signatures. He suggests even further steps, which led to a nationwide economic boycott of serious effectiveness. Even that would not stop the revolutionaries, so it came down to armed conflict.

The point being, perhaps it is time to start considering further steps beyond pleas for doctrinal clarity and cries for the upholding of the perennial belief of the Church from a standpoint of filial submission.

I’m not sure what those next steps could be. We’ll certainly see what the Synod produces, but if it goes according to modernist/progressive plan………it would be a really good idea to have a response ready in advance. Something more constructive than collectively flipping the bird. I’m having a hard time convincing myself what an appropriate next step would constitute if millions of hearts are broken and scandalized by the Synod, while staying within the bounds of virtue. Could an “economic boycott” be one of the possibilities?

Islamic State militants on Sunday blew up the temple of Baal Shamin, one of the most important sites in Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra, said Maamoun Abdul Karim, the country’s antiquities chief.

The temple bombing would be the first time the insurgents, who control swathes of Syria and Iraq and captured Palmyra in May, damaged monumental Roman-era ruins.

“We have said repeatedly the next phase would be one of terrorising people and when they have time they will begin destroying temples,” Abdul Karim told Reuters.

“I am seeing Palmyra being destroyed in front of my eyes,” he added. “God help us in the days to come.”

A week ago, the militants beheaded Khaled Asaad, an 82-year-old scholar who worked for more than 50 years as head of antiquities in Palmyra, after detaining and interrogating him for over a month.

Before the city’s capture by Islamic State, Syrian officials said they moved hundreds of ancient statues to safe locations out of concern that the militants would destroy them.

In June, Islamic State blew up two ancient shrines in Palmyra that were not part of its Roman-era structures but which the militants regarded as pagan and sacrilegious.

The militants were also beginning excavation for gold and giving licenses for illicit excavation of the city’s treasures, Abdul Karim added.

The structure below is reputed to be the one that was destroyed. It was a temple to the satanic demon of fertility to which many ancient cultures sacrificed their living babies. The Israeli state was sacked by God for falling into this unimaginable idolatry:

But God has never commanded us to iconoclasm or even effacing the reminders of past satanic worship. In fact, these places can serve a salient function in demonstrating how men have fallen in the past, and how careful we must be to not do similarly. We are only preserved from such folly by cooperation with Grace.

Other threatened structures in Palmyra:

At present, major Christian historical sites like Krak de Chevaliers, a massive Crusader castle occupied by the Knights Hospitaller for 150 years in the 12th and 13th centuries has not fallen under ISIS control, but as the war continues to go badly for the Syrian government and anti-ISIS forces it is possible such structures could be threatened, as well.

Krak de Chevaliers was damaged during fighting in 2013 and 2014. The extent of the damage is unclear. What is clear is that if this priceless site falls into ISIS’ hands the damage will be much more severe. Other great Crusader castles like Margat and Masyaf may be similarly threatened, but ISIS could conceivably give them a pass since they were conquered by islam long ago. One never knows with these guys. They are so crazed and full of blood-lust they are capable of anything at anytime.

Perhaps ISIS is the scourge God is sending to chastise the entire world for its cold-hearted indifference and rank immorality? That, among a few other things, like looming economic implosion and possible societal breakdown.